Sheltered Workshops: Now Congress is Asking the Hard Questions, and Where are the Answers?

Sheltered Workshops: Now Congress is Asking the Hard Questions, and Where are the Answers?

Braille MonitorApril 1986
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Sheltered Workshops: Now Congress is Asking the Hard Questions, and Where are the Answers?
The Committee for Purchase from the
Blind and Other Severely Handicapped is
a small federal agency with a staff of
about a dozen and an annual budget of
less than $1 million. Its establishment,
authority, and functions are set
out in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act.
Generally the Committee is responsible
for ruling on the eligibility of sheltered
workshops to sell their products
to the government without competition
and for deciding what items federal
agencies are required to buy from the
workshops.
As every other federal government
agency is required to do, the Committee
appears each year before Congressional
subcommittees in the House and Senate
having to do with the appropriation of
money. In the past the Committee's
appearances have been pro forma, and the
small appropriation has later been approved
without question or controversy.
Things are changing, however. During
this year's appropriations cycle, the
Committee is being required to submit
more information to Congress than ever
before. That is not by accident. It is
all part of the chain of events we set
in motion several years ago designed to
reform the sheltered workshop system.
Those reforms are now coming, one step
at a time. Remember the House Report
which criticized the workshops for tokenism,
finding that few blind or handicapped
people are employed as managers
or supervisors? The same criticism was
also leveled at National Industries for
the Blind.
Some in Congress want to know if there
has been any improvement. So the best
time for them to find out is when the
Committee comes to Capitol Hill to ask
for money. It's the old principle: "You
have to give a little to get a little."
The Committee's annual funding request
is first considered at the appropriations
subcommittee level in both the
House of Representatives and the Senate.
The procedure used by the subcommittee
involves a hearing, at which the chairman
or any members may ask any questions
they may have about the Committee's
program. Normally the hearing is routine
and uneventful, and the script is
cut and dried.
But last year there was a new tone.
Subcommittee members in the Senate
seemed quite interested in finding out
how employment opportunities for the
blind in sheltered workshops compare
with employment opportunities for the
sighted. Questions were also raised
about employment of the blind at
National Industries for the Blind, a
subject that almost seemed taboo in the
past. What's more, the Senate subcommittee
was even interested in the financing
of National Industries for the
Blind. These questions were significant
by themselves. But the answers of the
Committee witnesses (which amounted to
"We don't know," or, "We don't have that
information") were even more revealing.
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
Additional Committee Questions
Question: For the record, please provide a list of all organizations or
groups that received grants from
National Industries for the Blind since
the beginning of the NIB's fiscal year
1982.
Answer: The Committee for Purchase
does not have that information since it
is an activity conducted by the central
nonprofit agencies (CNA's) outside the
Committee's program.
Question: Provide the amount of each
grant to each organization or group and
state the purpose for which the funds
were provided.
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: How many jobs does the Committee's
program provide for the blind
and handicapped in direct labor?
Answer: In fiscal year 1984 there were
14,134 blind and other severely handicapped
persons employed in producing
commodities or providing services for the government under the Committee's
program.
Question: What percentage of all direct
labor jobs in the workshops does
this represent?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: What percentage of the management
and supervisory jobs are held by
persons who are blind or handicapped?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: Is your Committee aware of
recent findings by the Department of
Labor that Milwaukee Industries for the
Blind has not complied with affirmative
action for the handicapped requirements
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973?
Answer: Yes.
Question: What program does your Committee
have in place to inform blind and
handicapped workers of their rights to
affirmative action for employment and
advancement in the workshops?
Answer: The regulations regarding
affirmative action obligations of government
contractors are published and
enforced by the Department of Labor.
They are included in Code of Federal
Regulations Title 41, Part 60-741.
Question: During fiscal year 1985 how
many new positions in management and
supervision of workshops were obtained for blind and handicapped persons due to
the additions of products or services to
the procurement list?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: How many jobs would you
anticipate would be added in management
and supervision during fiscal year 1986
to employ the blind and handicapped?
Answer: The Committee has no basis for
forecasting the number of management and
supervisory jobs to be added in fiscal
year 1986.
Question: Please explain the Committee's
method of approving or disapproving
annual budgets of the central nonprofit
agencies.
Answer: The Committee does not approve
or disapprove the annual budgets of the
central nonprofit agencies.
Question: Do you evaluate budget needs
of the CNA's (central nonprofit agencies)
and direct changes in the commissions
they charge to the workshops?
Answer: The Committee evaluates the
needs of the central nonprofit agencies
in order to establish the maximum fee
that the central nonprofit agencies may
charge their participating workshops.
Question: Please indicate how often
within the past five years these adjustments
have been directed by the Committee.
Answer:
During the past five years the
Committee has not changed the limit of
four percent that the central nonprofit
agencies may charge their participating
workshops.
Question: Does current law give your
Committee authority to require workshops
to employ blind and handicapped people
in management jobs?
Answer: No.
Question: In your judgment are the
blind and severely handicapped fairly
represented in the management of the
workshops?
Answer: The Committee has no basis for
answering this question. The Committee
encourages participating workshops to
employ blind and handicapped in management
or supervisory positions.
Question: As a criteria for designating
the central nonprofit agencies,
has your Committee developed formal requirements for them to follow in employing
blind and handicapped people?
Answer: No.
Question: Please explain which jobs at
National Industries for the Blind are
now being done by blind employees.
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: What is NIB's (National
Industries for the Blind) total work
force?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: What is NIB's total payroll?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: What amount of NIB's total
payroll represents salaries and fringe
benefits paid to blind employees?
Answer: The Committee does not have
that information.
Question: Is it the Committee's position
that budget and spending practices
of the central nonprofit agencies are
beyond the scope of Congressional review
each year during the appropriations
process?
Answer: The Committee does not have a
position on this subject since it is the
prerogative of the Congress to determine
what information the Committee must
submit to support its appropriation
request.
Question: Isn't it true that the total
cost of your program includes the commission
payments made to the central
nonprofit agencies?
Answer: No.
Question: What would the total cost of
the Committee's program be if you included
the amount of the commission
payments to the CNA's for fiscal year
1985?
Answer: The Committee does not agree
that the fee paid the central nonprofit
agencies is part of the cost to the
government of the Committee's program.
Question: What do you expect the total
cost (including CNA commissions) to be
for fiscal year 1986?
Answer: See reply to the previous
question.
This exchange took place in writing
and appears as a part of the printed
record of last year's Senate appropriations
subcommittee hearing. It is that
record which formed the basis for later
action by the full appropriations committee.
Here's how it works. The full
Committee approves an appropriations
bill stating the amount of money which
each agency may spend during the federal
fiscal year in question. A report is
also produced by the full Committee
containing certain instructions and
requirements which may pertain to the
spending of money by any federal agency.
The Committee Report is also used to
require federal agencies to submit certain
types of information during the
consideration of future funding
requests.
With this in mind, the Senate Appropriations
Committee was obviously less
than pleased with the answers of "We
don't know," or "We don't have that
information." Any agency may be able to
get away with such responses the first
time the questions are asked, but Congress
can ultimately require the answers
to be produced, no matter how unpleasant
they may be. So, on September 9, 1985,
the Senate Appropriations Committee got
its chance to respond to the "We don't
know," and "We don't have that information," kind of answers.
Senate Report 99-133 announces several
new requirements that the Committee for
Purchase from the Blind and Other Severely
Handicapped must meet beginning
with the appropriations request for
fiscal year 1987. It is significant
that the Senate Appropriations Committee
is now demanding to know what kind of
employment opportunities are being offered
to the blind in workshops as compared
to those that are offered to the
sighted. They also want to compare
average pay scales for the blind and the
sighted. And not just for the workshops
but for National Industries for the
Blind, as well. These reporting requirements
are unparalleled in the history
of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program.
The Committee on Purchase from the Blind
and Other Severely Handicapped is already
showing signs of resistance,
arguing that there is too much paperwork
in gathering the information for Congress.
That is nonsense, of course.
The Committee should be assembling such
information (especially about employment
opportunities and pay for the blind) in
the normal course of its business. The
resistance in reporting this data is
either a marked insensitivity to the
employment needs of the blind and handicapped
or perhaps there is more than
just a little shame involved for the
Committee to have to admit that the
management ranks of this program are
still rife with tokenism. Despite its
resistance, the Committee will ultimately
have to tell Congress how the
workshops are doing. Platitudes are no
longer good enough. Congress wants to
know if blind and handicapped people are
being hired in the upper level ranks and
how their pay compares to that of the
sighted who are not handicapped. It's about time someone asked. The answers
will be enlightening, to say the least.
Here is the entire section from the
Senate Committee Report:
Senate Report 99-133
The Committee recommends the full
budget request of $730,000 for the Committee
for Purchase from the Blind and
Other Severely Handicapped.
The Committee's primary objective is
to increase the employment opportunities
for the blind and other severely handicapped
and, whenever possible, to prepare
them to engage in normal competitive
employment. The Committee on
Purchase determines which commodities
and services are suitable for Government
procurement from qualified nonprofit
agencies serving the blind and other
severely handicapped; publishes a procurement
list of such commodities and
services; determines the fair market
price for commodities and services on
the procurement list; and makes rules
and regulations necessary to carry out the purposes of the act.
The Committee staff supervises the
selection and assignment of new commodities
and services, assists in establishing
prices, reviews and adjusts these
prices, verifies the qualifications of
workshops, and monitors their performance.
Reports
from the
Committee for Purchase from the
Blind and Other
Severely Handicapped
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